Mission and Principles

Our mission is to encourage the development of leaders who assume responsibility for sharing education to make students’ lives more meaningful. Our core values are that school leadership is an intellectual, moral, and craft practice, and that transformation leadership entails a commitment to equity and social justice, critical thinking, and the forging of collaborative links between educational institutions and communities. We seek to assist prospective leaders as they explore the possibilities for new futures and new educational institutions. While each program is guided by a detailed mission statement, all programs reflect our seven core principles. These principles were developed by departmental faculty in the 1990s, and revised in 1998, 2007, and 2016.

EDL Principles

Preamble: Our Values

Our purpose is to advance a socially just society through our educational and leadership work.

We aspire for a more democratic, socially just world through intentional conversations, curriculum, and activism that reflects an attention to diversity, a focus on social identities, equitable practices, and how power, oppression, and privilege impact education.

We believe that educators co-construct academic programs which meaningfully connect with the lived experiences of their students

We believe in constructing education as an integrated human experience through generating knowledge, educating, serving, and promoting holistic well-being in our classrooms, institutions, and broader communities.

Our academic department is rooted in these core values that inform our principles. These principles allow for multiple interpretations and multiple voices and yet communicate our belief in advancing the causes of democracy and social justice.

Guiding us in enacting our values are these 4 Principles:

Leadership is an intellectual, moral, and craft practice situated in the cultural, political, and social contexts of institutions and societies.

Educational leadership is both positional and non-positional in form; it is a process of power-sharing rather than power-imposing which works toward collaboration, emancipation, and empowerment.

Educators make a commitment to community. The building and development of diverse, inclusive communities is never assumed, and should be continuously nurtured, interrogated, and supported.

Educational leaders understand and navigate the present environment in order to work towards transforming organizations and the individuals within them to become more democratic and socially just.

Department of Educational Leadership

Our mission is to encourage the development of leaders who assume responsibility for sharing education to make students’ lives more meaningful. Our core values are that school leadership is an intellectual, moral, and craft practice, and that transformation leadership entails a commitment to equity and social justice, critical thinking, and the forging of collaborative links between educational institutions and communities.